The Daring Bakers make chocolate pavlova!

Lots of pictures and not so many words today. I'm sure many of you are grateful! I made this challenge only days after it was revealed, which is very unusual for me. As I didn't write it up then, I can't remember much. What I do remember is that it was delicious, and I took it on a picnic along with the Daring Cooks' challenge of pâté and bread. This pav wasn't exactly what I think about for a picnic dessert, but it was certainly good. Even though I'm not a big fan of chocolate, the chocolate-mascarpone mousse was rich and delicious. The meringues were nice and crisp, and the crème anglaise-mascarpone-Amaretto mixture was the most amazing dessert sauce ever. 

I made a vanilla meringue, as chocolate on chocolate does not appeal. I'm glad I did, because this was already an incredibly rich dessert. I garnished with some wonderful organic cherries I had found on sale that morning. They were the reason I decided to make this dessert on a very busy day, what with the pâté and bread I was already making. 

I had fun piping the meringue and mousse in swirls. This is the sauceless version I packed up for the picnic, so we could add it at the last moment. I may even have tried to lick the jar it was in. The one I kept right-side-up travelled surprisingly well. 

They looked just like this on our picnic. In our minds' eye, anyway. But, I still had a few baked meringue bases left over, so a few days later, on a very cloudy and rainy day, I put together a blackberry curd pavlova with the curd left from these shortcakes. Click on the link for the curd recipe. It was a perfect combination, though the colour looks a bit weird in the gray light.

A few days after that, with my move date looming, I thought I had better use up some of the egg whites that were still in the fridge. This time I made a soft, marshmallowy meringue in the true pavlova style. There was lots of discussion in the forums about whether a crisp meringue was actually a pavlova, but I just stayed out of it and kept baking. I topped this pav with some strawberry-white chocolate mousse left over from the wedding cake, and topped it with some fresh strawberry coulis. This was fantastic! I'd go make another now if all my baking equipment weren't in storage. 

Blog-checking lines: The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard

Original challenge recipes can be found here.

TWD: Tender shortcakes

I feel like I made these ages ago, because all I can remember is that they were very good! I really should write up my posts soon after baking, but writing is my least favourite part of this blogging thing, so I put it off as long as possible. Anyway, it's all coming back to me now. I made one quarter of the recipe and ended up with 5 dainty shortcakes. The dough was very crumbly and I had a hard time making it stick together on the baking sheet, so I was worried that I'd end up with a pile of crumbs, but the baked shortcakes were incredibly tender and crumbly. Even though local strawberries arrived in the market here this past week I used blackberries, as I had lots in the fridge. I had so many that I decided to make a blackberry curd with some of them. This was purple and tangy and creamy, and perfect with the shortcakes, berries and whipped cream.
This week's pick was chosen by Cathy of The Tortefeasor, and it was a great one! Almost no effort, and a delicious result.

Blackberry curd

8 ounces (by weight) blackberries

½ cup sugar (maybe more)

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

a pinch of salt

2 eggs

Combine berries, sugar, lemon juice, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring frequently, until hot and berries have broken down. Mash them with your spoon to help. Remove from heat and turn stove down to medium low. Beat eggs in a heatproof bowl, and slowly add about ½ cup of the fruit mixture, stirring all the while. Return tempered egg mixture to the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly on medium low, until thickened. Do not allow it to come to a boil or it will curdle. It should be opaque when it's ready, and remember that it will thicken further in the fridge. Taste and add more sugar if needed. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and refrigerate, covered, for up to a week.

If you want it thicker, reduce blackberries to 6 ounces. You can also use raspberries here for a bright pink curd.